USIU Joins List of Theaters Imperiled by Financial Ills

1990 will go down as the year in which the fragility of San Diego’s often-impressive theater scene was never more in evidence.

And lest any of us forget the fiscal crises of the La Jolla Playhouse, the San Diego Repertory Theatre and the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company, one more theater ended the year by unveiling its own uncertain future.

It’s not a professional theater like the others, but it serves 5,500 subscribers--more than either the Gaslamp or the San Diego Rep.

It’s the popular program of United States International University, operating at the Theatre in Old Town and the Poway Center for the Performing Arts.

USIU’s theater problems are, in part, a matter of overspending on production. But the greater burden comes from the university’s having just filed for bankruptcy, because of an accumulated $14-million in debt in the United States. Administrators say the school has an additional $8.5 million in debt in the United Kingdom.

USIU, like theatrical programs at UC San Diego and San Diego State University, feeds the larger professional market with talent. USIU students and teachers have performed by the dozen on stages at the San Diego Rep and North Coast Rep this year alone.

USIU is best known for having sent John Barrowman, a junior, to its London campus for its longstanding year-abroad program. But on the way to London, Barrowman got sidetracked. He auditioned and was cast as the lead in “Anything Goes” on London’s West End. This was followed by a lead role in “Miss Saigon,” which now is not only the hottest show in London, but also the most eagerly awaited import to Broadway.

Ironically, it is the same London campus that provided Barrowman a steppingstone that might become the solution--and the sacrificial lamb--for USIU’s problems.

The U.K. campus is up for sale for $60 million, which, if sold, could solve the school’s long-running financial problems in one swoop.

But even if the sale occurs and solvency at last results, the theater program will not go back to business as usual, theater professor/director/actor Drew Tombrello said in a recent interview.

Tombrello, most recently cast as Dutch Schultz in the San Diego Rep’s upcoming “The Life and Life of Bumpy Johnson,” said that we can expect belt-tightening at USIU theater, a move he applauds.

“We spent too much money, and our programs had a lot of fat. I don’t think many of us could last under that decadence,” he said, citing a production of “West Side Story” that cost upward of $80,000.

“We have been assured that our programs will stay intact as long as we can show how that cost effectiveness can work. What we’re hoping is that in a year or two we can come back stronger than we left--not with a monetary thrust, but with an artistic, academic thrust.”

Tombrello said with last year’s departure of USIU President William Rust, who ran the school for 37 years, a greater freedom emerged.

Under Rust, professors and students found themselves limited to light musicals from the 1940s and 1950s, Tombrello said.

Under current President Kenneth McLennan, a former Marine Corps general, Tombrello was able to direct such shows as “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Out of disaster can come growth and change. Out of disaster can also come more disaster. Tombrello is optimistic, but knows the theater’s future could go either way.

“We see it as a beginning rather than an ending. It’s going to be tough. We’re going to lose students. Some will be afraid, and I will tell them, ‘If you’re afraid, don’t come.’ I know we’re going to finish this year. And we’ll know next fall if it’s going to be a program that we all want.

“If it (the theater) falls, I don’t think it will fall from without, it will fall from within. And we will say, ‘Look, the dream is dead, let’s all move on.’ But this could also become the program we always wanted it to be.”

Each theater’s crisis in 1990 has been unique, sharing mainly a common need for community support in increasingly tough economic times. But still, the lessons of USIU point to a message worth remembering for all companies heading into an uncertain ’91. Be willing to make changes--without them you may indeed die--but don’t lose the dream.

PROGRAM NOTES: Loretta Devine, who was a smash in the Old Globe’s “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” will reprise the role she created in George C. Wolfe’s “The Colored Museum” on KPBS-TV (Channel 15, Cable 12), Feb. 1, 9-10:30 p.m. . . .

Lamb’s Players Theatre will present three one-man shows on its National City Stage in January: “C.S. Lewis On Stage,” Jan. 17-19, “The Revelation of John,” Jan. 20, and “The Gospel of Mark,” Jan. 24-27. . . .

The San Diego Actors Theatre will produce “American Dreams” by Studs Terkel at the Elizabeth North Theatre beginning Feb. 15 for a five-week run. . . .

The Moscow Circus will return to the San Diego Sports Arena March 13-17. . . .

Mummenschanz, a Swiss mime troupe, will perform at the Spreckels Theatre March 13 at 7 p.m. . . .

The North Coast Repertory Theatre will produce Athol Fugard’s “Blood Knot,” the story of a white man and a black man in South Africa who share the same mother. The show fills a previously open spot in the theater’s season schedule. It begins April 20 for a six-week run. . . .

The San Diego Critics Circle Awards will be presented Jan. 28 at Tin Pan Alley, but with a difference this year. Instead of putting the spotlight on winners (and thus losers), the critics will name honorees with multiple recognitions in each category.